the following...

Anyone who has ever learned a
foreign language will be aware that translation is not simply word
substitution. The Italians even say tradurre e' tradire
("to translate is to betray"). Sometimes, languages just
doesn't have equivalent concepts. French, for instance, lacks a word for "home". Sure, you can say "welcome to my
home" (bienvenu chez moi) but chez moi really means "my
place". In other contexts, "home" is translated as maison,
"house". But, in that case, how would one translate the
song title "A House is not a Home"? ("Une maison
n'est pas une maison"?)

An even more surprising
omission occurred in Old English, which had no word for
"second". It hadfyrst ("first") and Ůridda
("third") but the only way an Anglo-Saxon could say
"second" was to use ˇ­er (= "other").
This gap was filled when second entered English from Old French,
soon after the Norman invasion. Although second avoids the
ambiguity of ˇ­er, it doesn't specifically refer to the number
two - it literally means "the next one", from the Latin root sequi-
"to follow".

Another familiar use
of second is as a division of time. How did this come
about? Well, when we say minute we are really using shorthand
for first (or prime) minute. Similarly, second
is shorthand for second minute. The reason for this lies in
medieval mathematics. Medieval scholars employed two systems of
fractions: those with a divisor of 60 were called minutiŠ physicŠ;
all other fractions were called simply minutiŠ (we still use minutia
to mean "a small detail"). Thus, when an hour was divided
by 60 the result was called a pars minuta prima, Latin for "a
first fractional part" (i.e. "a minute") and a second
division by 60 gave a pars minuta seconda, literally "a second
fractional part" (i.e. "a second"). Division by 60
was also used in geometry where degrees were subdivided into minutes and
seconds.

The Latin root sequi- has provided English
with innumerable words with meanings relating to "following" - sequence,
consequence, subsequent, sequel, persecute, prosecute,
execute, obsequious, sue and suitor, to name but a few.

When Alan Bennett's play "The Madness of George III" was made into a movie, the "III" was
dropped for fear that the general public would assume that it was a
sequel. We are all familiar with the sequel which is a follow-up to a
previous, successful movie but sequel originally meant a different
kind of "follower". When kings and great lords traveled,
they would customarily be accompanied by a large number of
hangers-on. This retinue was called their sequel.

Modern technology allows us
to program synthesizers to obey certain sequences of notes, and sequencers
(whether hardware or software) are a common tool for musicians. This
terminology harks back to the very earliest days of western music when a sequence
meant a prolonged succession of notes sung on the last syllable of the
Alleluia in a church service. Eventually, these sequences were sung
on their own and became the ancestor of all European art music. The
term sequencer was first used in the 1400s to mean "a book which
held the music for these sequences".

Another musical
"follower" is segue (Italian
"it follows" pronounced "seg-way") which refers to one piece of music which follows
directly after another without pause. Then there was an old Spanish dance
in 3/4 time called the seguidilla (from Spanish seguida
"following"). We must admit that this is a pretty obscure
word but we include it because we found two preposterous and contradictory
quotations:

A monotonous drawling seguidilla that serves the nurses as a
lullaby to put their children to rest.

- Annual
Register, 1782

and

When I taught you to warble the gay seguadille,
And to dance to the light castanet.

- Oh! Remember
the Time, Moore ,
1852

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